We are a GREEN COMPANY!
Here at Sureway Collision Center we believe in our role as leaders and stewards of the environment. For over 25 years we have worked hard to create a safe workplace for our employees, taken advantage of new technologies that improved our operation, while providing the best quality service to our customers.
At Sureway Collision, we take our environmental responsibility seriously. We are proud to be an Envirostars-Certified business. It is our goal to look for continued improvement in reducing our environmental impacts, and to distinguish ourselves as a leader in the collision repair industry.
Here are some of the practices that we have put in place that have had a significant impact on the environment, and the health of our employees:
- A 3-tier water use filtering system that starts with a flocking machine that batch filters our wet sanding process in providing the highest quality in block sanding for the very best for our paint system. This flocking agent then catalyzes any contaminants in the water and then discards the cleaned water into our on site oil water separator. It is then tested and licensed to be finalized through the sanitary city treatment plant.
- Our air quality systems are all filtered with high micron filters that have been personally tested and approved by all 3 of our regulatory agencies. Our filters are sent out to labs to be graded for safety disposal. All filtering devices have been tested for the correct air movement and volume of spray coating processes that have an impact on the employees, equipment, and product. We have installed fresh air mask respiratory systems to provide our employees with the cleanest air possible. The purchasing of a resistance inverter type spot welder has helped the process of unitized body spot welding to significantly reduce the large amounts of carbon emissions that are normally associated with mig type welding, by allowing large amounts of electricity to convert to a frequency. This technology then allows the welder to adapt to multitask and duplicate a wide range of welding in the same way the factory application does, creating up to 90% reduction in green house emissions.
- And finally the biggest reduction in the carbon footprint in our industry has been the change to water base paint. WOW! I wish that every shop owner would take a look at and make every effort to get on board far ahead of any mandates to see for themselves the significant reduction in emissions and hazardous waste disposal that this product brings to the table. I have seen our still bottom batches (that's the size of a turkey baking bag) go from 2 a week, to 2 every 3 months. Not to mention the cost savings of disposal! There are generally 2 types of water base paint in the automotive market one that is a hybrid that still mixes with a blended solvent and water mix that does meet the mandates, however still produces a hazerdous waste byproduct. The 2nd type is, and that's the one we chose, uses only a 3% co solvent and to our surprise when we sent it to the lab it came back as a non toxic product that could in essence coexist in a fish tank with fish. Our color matches soared and our mixing bank went from 60 toners to about 30 toners. There's even a cost saving bonus of having coverage in 2-3 coats instead of the solvent coverage ratio of about 4-6 coats of paint.
- Bob
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